Sole Mates
by Thepiedsniper
Summary: There is a ninjutsu tradition of using chakra to determine one's ideal life match. Shinobi families traditionally use the jutsu on their child's sixteenth birthdays. When performed correctly, the family crest of their soulmate appears on the sole of their right foot. After the identity of one's match is thus determined, the true fun can begin… Kakasaku, some Naruhina and Nejiten
1. Chapter 1

There is a ninjutsu tradition of using chakra to determine one's ideal life match. Shinobi families traditionally use the jutsu on their child's sixteenth birthdays. When performed correctly, the family crest of their soulmate appears on the sole of their right foot. After the identity of one's match is thus determined, the true fun can begin…

Kakashi's sixteenth birthday was a low point. Years of pain and loss gnawed on his heart like a disease. If asked, he would have said he performed the jutsu out of loyalty to his clan, the fain hope that the Hatake family was not yet extinct. In truth, he just wanted to feel less alone.

He felt the jutsu burn, and lifted his right foot. What would it show him? If his soulmate had no clan crest then the foot would reveal the symbol of their home country instead. This would make life harder (especially if he had inadvertently tattooed a hostile nation on himself), but at least he'd have a better chance of tracking them down.

It wasn't an enemy country, but the image gave him no comfort. After a few seconds of staring, he left his foot fall back to the floor with a dull thud. A maru symbol; a zero. His soulmate wasn't a ninja, wasn't even a clanless civilian. His soulmate didn't exist at all.

* * *

The minute the clock struck midnight on her sixteenth birthday, Sakura performed the jutsu. Hers was a low-level clan, and there was no great pressure nor expectation for her foot to reveal anything noteworthy. But she would show them all, because when she looked at the sole of her foot she would be sure to find an Uchiha fan there.

The dim light of her bedside lamp wasn't enough to make out the boxy shape on her foot, but she could see enough to know what it wasn't. Biting down on her dismay, she shifted herself closer to the light.

It was a symbol she didn't recognise: nine diamonds laid out so that they formed one large diamond. A foreign clan, perhaps. Obscure and relatively unremarkable, just like the Haruno clan.

"Of course," she murmured to herself, as if the mark on her foot were little more than a smudge and not the identity of her supposed soulmate. "Of course it isn't him."

She told everyone else that she had foregone the ritual. "It doesn't matter right now," she would say every time Ino or Naruto asked. "I'm focusing on my training instead."

* * *

Other birthdays came and went, and the teasing over Sakura's stubborn silence eventually subsided. September and October passed; Ino grew thoughtful, Naruto evasive. Sakura would catch him glancing at his right shoe during training and on missions, as if the jutsu were still burning him. The fiftieth time she caught him doing this, she confronted him.

"How bad could it possibly be?" She said, arms crossed. They sat around a fire deep in The Country of Rice. Sai cocked his head in curiosity, but Kakashi was deep in his book and pretending not to hear them.

Naruto gave an exaggerated start, then seemed to think better of it. "It's not bad," he said, crumpling back against the tree he leaned against. "It's just…confusing. I've never really thought about them like that. Don't get me wrong, they're a really impressive fighter," he added, blue eyes scrunched in consternation. "And I guess their hair is really pretty? But I'm not sure I'm…attracted to them, you know?"

"Well," Sakura bit her lip. It had been seven months since her own sixteenth birthday, and for the most part she had been focusing on trying to fall out of her doomed love with Sasuke. Some days it seemed about as possible as growing wings and flying away. Other days, days when Konoha was beautiful and good and her friends were strong and brave, she was surprised at how easy it was to forget The Boy Who Left. "Maybe you don't feel anything for them right now, but we're still pretty young and you've got your whole life to figure out what they really mean to you." She sighed. "At least you know who they are. Not knowing is worse." It was the first time she had admitted to performing the jutsu. Naruto's eyes widened slightly, and Kakashi made a small sound that might have been disagreement, or might just have been a cough. Sai made no comment whatsoever; his birthday wasn't until November.

A burning log rolled free from the others and sent sparks glittering high in the air. "I guess you're right," Naruto finally said, though the aforementioned confusion still reigned over his face. "Maybe I'll wake up one day and feel differently. I just wish he'd said something last July, when he first found out."

"'_He_?'"

* * *

Hyuuga Hinata's sixteenth birthday was the cause for equal parts celebration and worry in the Hyuuga clan. Theirs was one of the oldest and noblest families in Konoha, and as heir to the first house it went without saying that her soulmate would have to be at least as noble.

Her aunts, uncles and distant cousins crowded around, craning their elegant necks for the first glimpse of her matchmaking symbol. Hinata's new kimono sat heavy around her, but its warmth was the only comfort against the frigid December air. The ritual itself was non-negotiable, but her parents had granted her the small concession of allowing her to choose the colour of her gown. She chose orange.

The heir to the Hyuuga hopes and dreams formed the seals to her fate with shaking hands. Unable to see the burning sole of her foot from her position, she watched the faces of her family instead.

At first there was confusion, a ripple of delicate uncertainty, then her father gave a mild sigh. "Some clanless nobody," he said to the crowd, ignoring Hinata's small gasp. "Disappointing, but hardly cause for despair. I have heard a rumour that the daimyo's second cousin bears a Hyuuga flame. Undoubtedly this is to be our daughter's future spouse."

"Husband," Hinata's mother spoke quietly, her eyes still on her daughter's foot. "If this meant Hinata was destined for a Konoha civilian, would it not be the Leaf? This symbol," she gestured with a delicate wave of her hand, "may be common in this village, but it's origin is…" she trailed off with a significant look, and Hinata watched the colour drain from her father's face.

Murmurs swept through the cold hall, turning to indignant cries as Hyuuga Hiashi swept from the room like an apoplectic bat. Once she was sure that enough eyes were off her, Hinata hiked up her kimono and twisted her foot back to gaze at the symbol on her sole. There it was, the same symbol she had seen emblazoned on the backs of Konoha flak vests all her life. The spiraling, whirlpool symbol of her true love.

She laughed.


	2. Chapter 2

Naruto was leaving Ichiraku Ramen when the opportunity struck. His apparent soulmate was approaching from the opposite direction, wearing a black winter kimono. Naruto watched him, trying to will his pulse to quicken or any of the other things Master Jiraiya wrote about attraction.

"Uh, hey Neji," he tried to sound cheerful, even as his cheeks grew warm with embarrassment and embarrassment alone. "Listen, can we talk?"

"Hinata is your soulmate." Neji said, in his usual deadpan manner.

"Oh." _Oh._

"Yeah."

"I guess that makes more sense," he laughed sheepishly. "Except wait, no it doesn't. Hinata's the head of a whole clan. Doesn't she have to marry a prince or something?"

Neji's stone face finally cracked. "Excuse me, idiot, but didn't you say you were going to _change _the Hyuuga traditions?"

"Yeah, but-"

"But because I'm from the second house you thought _I_ made more sense than the girl who's been in love with you since the day you met?"

"She _what-"_

"How arrogant." Neji's pale eyes gazed down at him with something close to disgust.

"I'm sorry man, obviously you're also way out of my league, I just never realised she-"

"You never _realised?" _Neji scoffed. "You're even stupider than I thought."

"I said I'm _sorry._" Naruto was floundering. "Hinata's great, you're great, I'm confused as hell but generally on board with what you're saying. It's just…" he tried to think of a word that wouldn't make Neji call him an idiot again. "...new. For me. To be like, loved." He smiled. "I was really happy when the soulmate jutsu worked, you know? I didn't even recognise it was the Hyuuga symbol at first, I was just glad there was someone out there who might want to be with me someday. And if it's Hinata, well then that's even better because we're already friends." He realised it was true; Hinata never seemed to say much, but her actions toward him had always been sincere and kind.

Neji seemed to contemplate it for a moment, before sighing. "You're still an idiot," he said, "but I don't think you'll break Hinata-sama's heart at least."

As if speaking her name had summoned her into existence, Hinata herself came racing around the corner. "Naruto? I have to say something to- Neji!"

"I was just leaving." Neji span on his heel and strode off.

Naruto watched as his true soulmate approached with a serene smile that left him feeling suddenly and uncharacteristically shy.

"Happy Birthday, Hinata." He reached out and brushed the sleeve of her kimono. "Orange really suits you."

* * *

"And _then _what happened?" Tenten's brown eyes were wide with curiosity.

Neji shrugged, taking a delicate sip of his tea. "I don't know. Like I said, I left, and then ran into you."

"I love that Naruto thought it was you the entire time." She laughed. "Driving himself crazy trying to figure out what you even have in common."

"Don't laugh," Neji said, but he had begun to smile in spite of himself. "It means he's a fool who can't see when his real soulmate is staring him in the face. Plus, if he'd approached me sooner I could have saved him the trouble. It's no secret that my jutsu revealed a plain Konoha leaf."

"Hmm, yeah." Tenten's smile turned enigmatic, as if she were enjoying a joke at the world's expense. "Still, this news is a little disappointing."

"Oh?"

"Yep." She swirled the dregs of her tea. "Because you see, _I_ was convinced Hinata was _my _soulmate."

Neji quirked an eyebrow. "_Why_?"

"Oh well," she heaved an exaggerated sigh. "I guess it must be some other Hyuuga."

"What?" Neji's usually-sharp brain scrambled to figure out what she was saying. "What does that mean?"

But she simply winked, setting her cup down and walking away.

"Tenten?" Neji called after her as he fumbled with his coin purse. "Wait up. What did you mean just now?"

* * *

Another war happened, as it always seemed to do when Kakashi found he had loved ones to lose. His team was only eighteen; still young by shinobi standards, but already fractured by Sasuke's betrayal and Naruto's special training. When they marched out, only he and Sakura remained to represent the original Team 7.

Unlike previous wars, this one united all countries under a single banner. Personal clothing had been replaced with generic fatigues, and even the village symbols on their forehead protectors had been replaced with the all-encompassing shinobi symbol.

But Kakashi noticed, as they rallied and marched and eventually fought, that there were still plenty of ninjas who had refused to abandon their individuality entirely. Some had painstakingly embroidered their family crests on the sleeves of their jackets, while others had simply rolled up their sleeves and drawn it on their arm with a marker. He even caught Chouji taping the Akimichi symbol on the back of his flak vest.

"It's so I can find her," The boy explained, round face turning scarlet. "Or I guess, so she can find me."

On the third day, Kakashi took a kunai to the chest.

It didn't hit anything vital, but he could tell within seconds that the blade had been coated with something. His mouth went dry and his vision turned blurry, and in his last moments of lucidity he turned to a comrade and uttered a single word: medic.

When he next opened his eye he was in a large canvas tent with a drip in his arm and a buzzing in his head.

"You're awake," a familiar voice said.

He sat up a little. "Hey, Sakura. How lucky that of all the medics in the Third Division, I would get to call in on you."

Sakura scoffed. "Not luck. When I heard our great commander had gotten himself injured, I had to drop everything to make sure you pulled through."

"Was there a chance I wouldn't?"

"Not really." Sakura grinned, stepping closer and helping him into a sitting position. "The drug was debilitating, but wouldn't have caused any lasting damage." She began the process of removing his drip. "Still, I'd appreciate it if you didn't make a habit out of getting hit by strange projectiles."

"How else am I supposed to find the time to see my favourite student?" Kakashi joked, barely wincing as the needle in his arm was removed.

Sakura gave him a blank look. "I'm neither your favourite nor your student anymore, _captain." _She placed a cotton ball over the tiny wound. "Keep pressure on that for a second."

Kakashi obeyed, watching as the girl wrapped the used needle in paper. When she turned to throw it in a nearby bin, he spied something white pinned to her shoulder.

"What's that?" he nodded at it. "It looks like a bandage. You hurt?"

Sakura glanced down at the piece of cloth. "Nothing like that. Look closer."

He peered at it. It was a square of white cotton like one might find in a standard med scroll. But someone, presumably Sakura, had drawn on it with a thin red marker.

"It looks like your old shirts," he said, "the design you used to wear."

"It's not a _design,"_ Sakura frowned at him, tracing the shape of a circle on her arm. "It's a symbol. My family's symbol."

"Wait." Kakashi reached out to examine the image. Sakura dutifully moved closer, and he caught a whiff of floral green scent that had managed to survive three days on a battlefield. "You have a family crest?"

Sakura looked at him like he was an idiot, and beneath the buzzing like alarm bells in his head he wondered if she was right. "Yes?"

"And it's a maru?"

"It's not a maru like zero." her frown deepened, "it's a ring. The Haruno clan use it to symbolise the cycle of death and rebirth. Whatever is lost in the winter returns in the spring; though not always in the same form."

It wasn't particularly warm in the medical tent, but Kakashi could feel sweat beginning to bead on his brow. He released Sakura's arm and leaned back from her and her floral aroma. "I thought it was just a pretty design you wore. Aren't your parents civilians?"

"They're genin." Her expression was turning deadly, but Kakashi couldn't seem to stop his panicked train of thought now that it had left the station.

"Are there any other members of your family?"

"You mean, aside from my parents?" She paused for a moment. "My grandma is still alive? And I have an uncle, but oh, he's from my mother's side so he's actually a Takenoko." She shrugged self-consciously. "I admit, we're not a very big clan. Why the sudden interest?"

He gave her a pointed look, but her face remained politely blank.

The buzzing in his head grew stronger. All these years believing he was doomed to a life alone, and now it turned out his soulmate was a kid he had known since she was ten. He was grateful he hadn't seen the white ring for what it was when they first met; it would have been unthinkable back then. Even eighteen was a little too young, though it was clear Sakura was going to be something truly special in future. But she couldn't possibly be for him. She'd never once looked at him like that, and considering their history it was hardly surprising. It made sense that she would choose to play dumb for the last two years; the mere thought of saying it aloud, of acknowledging their connected fate in this moment, was mortifying. He couldn't do it either.

He shook his head, unsure if the gnawing in his chest was from disappointment, shame, or the lingering effects of the poison. "No reason, Sakura-chan."


	3. Chapter 3

Time passed, as it was wont to do, and before Sakura knew it she was twenty-eight and all thoughts of war had become healing scars on a landscape of (relative) peace. She had grown an inch in height and about ten in hair. She surpassed her mentor as the strongest kunoichi, and though Shizune had begged her to take over as the hospital's Chief Medical Officer many times, she preferred the freedom of fieldwork. Missions were few and far between these days, but even the lowest-ranked assignments were happy to include a jounin medic in the team.

She had also collected four dresses, one for every wedding in which she had served as a bridesmaid. There was a deep blue yukata from Temari's Konoha ceremony (the bride and groom had used their international romance as an excuse to throw two separate parties), a pale pink qipao from Tenten's wedding (complete with irremovable cake stains from the reception's chaotic food fight), an orange kaftan from Hinata and Naruto's wedding (in which the couple had eloped to a beach in the Crescent Moon Kingdom with a few of their closest friends, five days before the stuffy Hyuuga ceremony was scheduled to take place), and finally a sky blue gown from Ino's wedding (a colour which had surely been calculated to make Sakura look as washed-out as possible next to the bride). She cherished each and every one, but her friends had started hinting that it was now her turn, to which she always turned to the empty space beside her with a sardonic smile. "Just one thing missing, I'm afraid."

The mysterious diamond man had never appeared, and Sakura had stopped looking years ago. Whenever she did think about the mark on her foot, it was with the vague regret that she had ever played with fate in the first place. She had been wrong, all those years ago when she said not knowing was worse. Every man she met was now the 'wrong' man, and that inescapable thought trapped her heart in a lonely cage.

* * *

Peace was interrupted by a warlord named Kurosawa. The story went that his sole mark had guided him to the daughter of a minor noble, already promised to another. For some families the practice of revealing one's soulmate was forbidden, for fear that it would disrupt a political match. He had stolen her on the eve of her wedding, using the matchmaking jutsu to reveal her own mark and convincing her to flee with him.

Her family had hired mercenaries to pursue the pair, and when they caught up Kurosawa used his soulmate as bait to lure them into a trap. But he had miscalculated; the mercenaries had not been tasked with the woman's retrieval but her assassination, to preserve the illusion that she had been an unwilling hostage who had died at the hands of her captor. In his rage and grief Kurosawa collected what felt like every vagabond and mercenary in the country, and had been causing as much mayhem as possible in the name of revenge.

The first A-Rank mission in almost a decade would be to infiltrate the bandit group, get close to the warlord, and take him out. Without his leadership, the others would break back into their original gangs. Kakashi and Sakura were chosen as the pair that would go undercover as two rogue nin from the Hidden Waterfall looking to join Kurosawa's army. Their selection might have seemed like favouritism to an outsider, but the Hokage's reasoning was pragmatic: married shinobi were not typically put on dangerous missions, and with most of Konoha ten years into the new Era of Peace, single jounin were becoming a dying breed.

* * *

For the first time in decades, Kakashi was running right on time. He weaved through the busy streets of Konoha, on his way to meet Sakura at the A-n gates and head out for their two-day journey to the edge of the bandits' territory. It had been ten years since he'd first discovered that Sakura was probably his soulmate, and though he certainly hadn't avoided her in that time, he had never again brought up the subject in her presence. It was enough to be her friend, captain, and occasional sparring partner. And so his life had gone on much in the same way as it always had, giving little thought to the ring on his foot or what it meant for his future. The present was sweet enough.

He glanced up from Icha Icha Tactics to side-step a cabbage merchant, and was met with the pleasant sight of a woman in a sundress. She was about a dozen yards ahead of him, walking in the same direction so that he couldn't see her face but did have a great excuse to watch the way her hips swayed as she walked, the hem of her dress shifting with the movement but never quite revealing anything more than the backs of her toned legs. Her hair was long and dark brown, worn loose and fluttering in the late Spring breeze.

Despite his choice of reading material, Kakashi was not, by nature, inclined to ogle women on the street. But whether it was the heat or the excitement of a semi-dangerous mission on the horizon, he found himself admiring the woman's body as he headed toward the gates. Happily, the woman seemed to be continuing that way as well. Perhaps he could speed up and start a conversation? Considering he was about to leave town for an unknown period the timing probably wasn't ideal, but if he took a few extra hours to leave then it would be no less than what people had come to expect of him.

As quickly as that hopeful thought came, he dismissed it. If it were anyone else that he was meant to be meeting that day, he might have invited the woman for a drink. But the A-n gates were just around the corner and he sped up, wanting to steal one quick glance at the woman's face before he walked away from her forever. The woman glanced in his direction as he passed, a pair of familiar green eyes meeting his.

"Wow, are you actually going to be on time for once?"

"Sakura?" Kakashi tripped over his own feet. "Your hair."

"You like it?" Sakura flicked a brunette lock over her shoulder. "It's for the mission."

"I…" Kakashi's mind was still reeling from the fact that he had just been checking out Haruno Sakura's behind. "You look...different."

"Jeez, no need to make me self-conscious! It's hard to know if any of the bandits were treated by me during the war, so I had to make myself look as different as possible."

She hoisted her backpack higher on her shoulders, and before he could stop himself Kakashi glanced down to watch the hem of her dress ride a few centimetres higher.

"Like the new outfit?" Sakura laughed, and he was grateful for the mask hiding his blush. "I hear the bandits are mostly men, so hopefully this way they won't be looking too hard at my face."

Kakashi swallowed hard. It was going to be a long trip.


	4. Chapter 4

The bandits were known to be camped in the hills around a series of semi-affluent towns in the country' south. The hard part wouldn't be finding them; it would be getting close enough to the inner circle to put a knife in Kurosawa's back.

After two days of travel Sakura's body ached for the comforts of home. Kakashi, the bastard, had opted to take point for most of the journey. She presumed this was a tactical manoeuvre designed to avoid further quips about where his eyes were looking, and she grudgingly admitted that it was a success. He set a gruelling pace that left Sakura with a dirt-stained dress and no breath left for teasing.

When they were only a click out from the closest bandit camp, Kakashi motioned for them to stop. It was dark, but the moon shone brightly through the trees and illuminated the unmasked half of Kakashi's face.

"I've been thinking," he said, and there was a frustrating lack of fatigue in his voice or expression. "About our disguises."

"Oh?" Sakura glanced down at her ruined dress and wondered if she ought to change it before they arrived.

"Yeah. I know that we've changed our clothes," even in the gloom she could tell his eyes were firmly fixed on hers, "but I think you're right about needing to go further with our most notable aspects. I was also seen by a lot of people during the war, and though my hair isn't quite as distinct as yours, this would be." He gestured to his mask, and then, before Sakura could react, tugged it down.

She couldn't help it. She gasped and leaned closer, gawking openly at the face that had eluded capture for the last sixteen years. It was like looking at a different person entirely; Kakashi's eyes had been placed on the face of some handsome stranger, whose lips quirked upward as she watched.

"What do you think?" He asked.

Sakura tried to condense her many thoughts into something intelligent, something that made her seem cool and unaffected by his obvious trump card.

"You have a beauty spot." _Nailed it…_

Kakashi laughed, and the familiar sound sent an unexpected thrill through her. She could see the laughter across his entire face, not just in his eyes. It changed him.

"I do. Hopefully it will distract the enemy into letting us through."

Sakura scowled. "No fair, Kakashi. It took me two hours and four bottles of hair dye to look as different as you do just by being yourself!"

Neither of them commented on the fact that she hadn't added the usual '-sensei' after his name.

* * *

"You say you're from Waterfall?" a burly man with a tattoo of a dove on his bicep glared down at the pair.

"That's right," Kakashi said. "I'm Hiro and this is Sachiko."

Sakura tried to affect a demeanour somewhere between 'strong enough to recruit' and 'harmless enough to leave alone.' Her decision to showcase her _feminine assets_ (as her old academy kunoichi instructor called it) had seemed like a good idea at the time, but watching the way the bandits' eyes strayed to her chest or legs made her feel uncomfortable in a way Kakashi's hadn't.

"You don't look much like rogues," the man said. "You look like some rich bitch who decided to run away from home because daddy didn't approve of her dirtbag boyfriend. Am I right?"

Sakura bared her teeth in a smile that didn't reach her eyes. "Not even close, I'm afraid."

"Don't be fooled by her sweet disposition." Kakashi said. "Sachiko's the reason we had to leave Waterfall in the first place. She killed our captain."

"Really?" An onlooker cocked his head to the side. "_Her_?"

Kakashi nodded. "Yep. Cut his balls off after he tried to put his hands on her. She's a real psycho."

The crowd hissed in sympathy for her imaginary victim, and Sakura bit her lip to keep from laughing. She caught Kakashi's eye and he gave her a surreptitious wink.

"Aren't you the copy-nin?"

An orange-haired man stepped forward, pointing at Kakashi's face. Sakura's heart clenched; they were going to get made right out of the gate.

"Copy-nin's got a scar like that." The man said.

Sakura opened her mouth, trying to think up something as fast as Kakashi had thought up something for her. But then the man with the dove tattoo stepped forward and punched the orange-haired man in the arm.

"Don't be stupid, the copy-nin's got a Sharingan! That's how he copies stuff."

"Oh, right." The orange-haired man rubbed his arm. "Sorry."

Sakura breathed a tiny sigh of relief, forcing her shoulders to relax and her fist to unfurl now that there was no immediate threat to their safety.

"You two go to the main tent for tonight while we sort out something more permanent," Dove Man said. "You want to stay together or shall I show you the women's tent?"

"Together," they said in unison, glancing at one another.

"Oh, so it _is _like that." Dove man grinned.

"No!" they said, and the man laughed.

"Whatever. Just don't eat more than your share, and if you don't bring something to the table by the end of the week then we'll take whatever you've got on you and leave you to bleed. I don't care who you've killed."

* * *

Kakashi strolled down the street of the nearby town, Sakura at his side. The week was almost up, and they were about to be given the chance to prove their worth.

The other bandits were also in town, but were hanging back until they reached the rendezvous point. It was the middle of the day and for their plan to work he and Sakura had to seem like innocent tourists.

"Are you sure the civilians will be safer this way?" Sakura whispered under her breath. "One jumpy bandit and the whole street could get involved." Despite the grim topic, her expression remained carefully blithe.

"You heard those guys; they would have just killed the security guards if we'd struck by night. This way, we can avoid bloodshed entirely." He grinned at her as though she had said something cute. An observer would have assumed they were lovers.

"As long as they believe we can pull it off by ourselves," Sakura giggled inanely, and an elderly woman passing close by smiled at the pair.

On impulse, Kakashi reached out to tuck a strand of brown hair behind her ear. Her face was warm against his fingers, and as he watched a delicate blush rose in her cheeks. Even though they had been play-acting the part of lovers ever since they had walked into town, his touch still seemed to have an effect on her. He enjoyed this more than he should have.

"We're here," he said quietly. "Time to go to work."

Homura's was the biggest jewellery chain in the entire country. As a bachelor shinobi Kakashi had never had cause to enter one of their stores before, but it was every bit as opulent as he'd assumed. A man with a salt and pepper moustache stood behind a counter at the far end of the room, and every surface in between glittered with gold and gems.

It was empty of other customers, a detail which made their plan even easier. The shopkeeper had been examining some sort of necklace but looked up at their arrival with an attentive air. Kakashi began to head for the man but a soft pressure at his side made him stop.

"Honey, look at these! Aren't they so cute?" Sakura was hanging off his arm, pointing to a set of gold earrings with a longing expression. Even knowing it was an act, Kakashi had to admit it was pretty cute.

With nobody else in the store to worry about he had intended to subdue the shopkeeper and get it over with quickly; but Sakura continued to hold him in place. "And just look at those pearls in the window!" She pointed, and Kakashi followed her gaze to the small crowd of window shoppers that had formed outside. Despite the bandits forcing civilians to tighten their purse strings, looking was still free.

"Beautiful," he murmured, and Sakura eased her grip slightly. "But not as beautiful as you, sweetheart."

It was a cheesy line, and Kakashi half expected her to roll her eyes at him; but whether it was the role she was playing or something else he didn't want to believe in, Sakura gave him a shy smile. "Flatterer."

"Looking for anything in particular?" the man behind the counter coughed politely, and they both turned to him.

"Oh no, we're just browsing," Sakura demurred, flapping her hand and breaking away to inspect a case of pocket-watches.

That was Kakashi's cue. He sidled up to the man, glancing back over his shoulder at Sakura.

"Actually, I _was _looking for something," he said in a low voice. "Something special."

The shopkeeper cottoned on quickly. "Something for the young lady, I take it? Just how special are we talking?"

Kakashi stole another glance at his brown-haired accomplice. "Something that's every bit as special as she is. Money is, of course, no object."

The man's eyes lit up with mercantile delight. "I see, I see." He put the necklace he had been inspecting back in its case. "I take it you'd like to take a look at something of the diamond ring variety, hmm?"

Kakashi nodded. "Not here, though."

"Of course." The man began to head through a side door, gesturing for Kakashi to follow. There was a short hallway, with one door marked 'exit,' and another door marked 'staff only.' He led Kakashi through a third door, which opened to a smaller back room with another counter. "If I may say, sir, I could tell you were in the market for a ring the second you walked through the door." The man pressed a hand to his chest. "As soon as I saw you two, I thought to myself, 'now those two people are soulmates.' I'm right, aren't I?"

Kakashi gave a guarded smile. "So, these rings?"

"Ah yes, one moment please. I keep the best products in the safe."

Kakashi counted to five before leaving to follow the man. The plan was simple: wait until he opened the safe, then knock him out and take everything. Then they would leave via the back exit where their bandit 'friends' should already be waiting. No mess, no fuss, no bloodshed.

Unfortunately, the bandits had obviously grown tired of waiting. The shopkeeper had almost reached the door marked 'staff only' when the back exit door opened with a loud creak. Kakashi watched in horror as the four bandits that had accompanied them into town swaggered in like they owned the place. He edged close to the shopkeeper, who seemed to be frozen in place. He could still fix this; for all the man knew Kakashi was just a customer who had been in the wrong place at the wrong time.

But then a bandit with a green bandana pointed at Kakashi. "You were taking too long."

The shopkeeper squeaked, his hand reaching for a button fixed to the wall next to the door. Before he could press it, Kakashi brought his hand down on the back of the man's neck and he crumpled to the ground. He sighed internally.

"He hadn't gotten the safe open yet."

Green Bandana shrugged. "There's plenty of baubles in the shop, right? Let's just take those."

Sakura appeared in the doorway that led back to the main shop, clearly drawn by the commotion. "What's going on? Are we done already?" Her eyes fell on the unconscious shopkeeper and she rushed forward. "Is he okay?"

Kakashi grabbed her shoulder, giving her a pointed look. "He's fine, but forget him." Bandits weren't supposed to care about random shopkeepers. "He hasn't opened the safe yet, and as I was about to explain to our friends, if we go back to the main shop people are going to notice us before we can grab anything worthwhile."

The bandits shuffled their feet. If they didn't do something soon they'd start smashing and grabbing anyway, and Kakashi and Sakura would have to blow their cover keeping people safe. But then Sakura smiled.

"Well then it's lucky I'm a master at cracking safes, I guess." She strode through the door marked 'staff only' where, sure enough, there was an enormous safe about as tall as Kakashi and twice as wide. "Everyone else stand back; I need total silence in order to hear the clicks."

Kakashi shooed the bandits back out the rear exit. "Wait thirty seconds then come back in to help us carry everything."

"Can she really crack that safe?" Green Bandana gave him a dubious look.

Kakashi shut the door in their face.

He found Sakura propping the shopkeeper up against the wall, her fingers on his pulse. She glared at him. "He'll be fine, but this wasn't the plan, Kakashi."

"I know," Kakashi sighed. "I tried to be careful, but it was a choice between knocking him out or letting one of the other guys kill him then and there."

Sakura smoothed the man's lapels before stepping away. He knew the medic in her would hate to leave an unconscious man in such a state, but time was running out.

"I told them to give us thirty seconds but based on their track record we should probably assume we have less than that."

"That's more than enough." Sakura turned back to the safe, grabbing the handle. She gave a harsh tug, and the door swung open with a metallic crunch. "After all," -she grinned- "it's not a very hard combination to crack."

* * *

The bandit camp was merry that night. Gold and silver were turned red by the glow of the campfire, and all precious gems looked like rubies. Men and women alike adorned themselves with gaudy necklaces and rings, and flung fistfuls of earrings and brooches into the air just to watch them glitter in the light.

Sakura may have been an undercover kunoichi, but was hard to fight such a jovial mood; especially since her and Kakashi were the cause. People kept pouring her drinks or throwing strings of pearls round her neck. Some of the bandits were playing music, and more than one plucky man had danced her in a ring around the fire. Without fail, each one would ask about her soulmate.

"I have some sort of fish. Could that be you, do you think?"

"You said you're from Waterfall, right? My soulmate mark is from the Hidden Cloud, but you never know?"

"I don't suppose you've got a five-pointed star on your foot, do you?"

Every time she would smile and wave them on to the next distraction. She didn't know who her mystery nine diamond man was, but she was pretty sure he wasn't celebrating in a bandit camp in the middle of nowhere. And even if he was, she was getting tired of waiting for him.

"You look distracted." A hand grabbed hers, pulling her out of her reverie. Kakashi's bare face had stopped startling her, but the sight of him drinking saké without a mask on was still a novelty.

"I'm fine, just a little tipsy." She downed her own cup and set it down on a nearby table.

"I didn't think you could get drunk if you didn't want to."

Sakura laughed. "Who said I didn't want to?" They were out of earshot of the others, but Sakura still leaned in closer, placing a hand on Kakashi's shoulder to steady herself. "You heard that Riichi guy earlier, we won't get to meet with Kurosawa until the day after tomorrow."

Kakashi leaned in too, only slightly unsteady on his feet. Sakura thought he was about to say something, but instead he reached out a hand and tugged gently on strings of jewels around her neck.

"I'm not sure I've ever seen you wear stuff like this before," he murmured, gently fingering a topaz that sat in the hollow of her throat. It tickled, but she found herself unable to move away from his touch.

"It's beautiful, but not really my type," she said, hoping Kakashi couldn't hear the waver in her voice. That would have been too embarrassing.

"What _is _your type, Sakura?" Kakashi asked, and suddenly it felt like they weren't talking about jewellery anymore. Why was he so serious all of a sudden?

"I like…" The alcohol had been a bad idea. It was slowly stripping away her inhibitions, and if Kakashi continued to look at her like that then she was going to do something she couldn't take back. Did he even realise what he was doing to her? Or was he standing this close because he didn't even see her as a woman who could get the wrong idea about that sort of thing?

"Yes?" Kakashi murmured, eyes on hers. "What do you like?"

_You, _she wanted to say. _I like you and I'm terrified the second I say it out loud my soulmate will appear and I'll have ruined everything I already have. _Curse her soulmate, wherever he was. Curse him for keeping his distance even when her heart belonged to him. Curse him for holding her happiness out of reach.

"Anything but diamonds," she sighed, stepping back. Kakashi let her go so readily that she must have imagined he was ever holding her in the first place.

In the early hours of the morning, after everyone else had gone to rest their heads and nurse their impending hangovers, Sakura sat by the ashes of the fire. Once she was sure nobody else was around, she slipped off her boot and inspected the nine diamonds on her foot. The symbol was as clear as it had ever been. She scratched at it, but of course it neither smudged nor faded. She was branded for life.

Grabbing a stick of charcoal from the ground, she smudged a black mark over the whole thing. It was childish, but just for that moment she wanted to pretend she was free to love another. She pressed the charcoal to the blank space next to the mark and began to draw herself a new symbol.

"If only." She admired her work for a moment longer, then put her shoe back on. The charcoal would rub off almost immediately, of course, but for a little while she could imagine there was still a henohenomoheji on the sole of her foot.

* * *

There was a fight, as brutal as it was inevitable. Kurosawa himself wasn't particularly strong, but he had collected a formidable inner circle that made it hard for Kakashi and Sakura to get close.

Sakura dodged a savage punch from a woman with the sharpened teeth of the Bloodmist Village only to be boxed in by a ronin from Iron. She raised her fists to protect her face, bobbing her feet like a boxer as she searched for an opening. As annoying as these fighters were, they would disperse as soon as their leader fell; without a charismatic figure to unite them, they would have no reason to work together.

If she could get to Kakashi, they could focus on breaking through to Kurosawa. She could hear the baying of his ninken somewhere to her right. Feinting left, she broke free of the rogue nin and samurai and sprinted for his side. He was backed against a thick tree, fighting four of the bandits; not as hopeless a position as it looked, considering it meant nobody could attack from his blind spot. Like Sakura, he was keeping his opponents back without getting drawn into a one-on-one fight with the small fry. His ninken were dragging weaker foes to the ground and out of sight among the trees.

Kurosawa finally made his appearance, springing from behind a pair of burly men with matching facial piercings. He entered from the side of the clearing opposite Sakura to engage Kakashi in the middle. It was a decent tactic in theory; Sakura had been using melee attacks, so by attacking further from her the man had a better chance of getting to Kakashi before Sakura could back him up. And even if she did attempt a ranged attack, she risked hitting her own ally in the process.

Unfortunately for them, they had underestimated Sakura's strength. Summoning chakra to her hands, she slowed down just enough for one of her pursuers to catch up.

"Got you," the Bloodmist woman sneered, but it turned to a yelp when Sakura picked her up and threw her across the clearing. She soared over the top of Kakashi's head and collided heavily with two of his opponents. All three stayed down, levelling the playing field considerably and giving Kakashi the chance to go on the offensive against Kurosawa and the other two who had remained standing.

Back on the edge of clearing, one of the men with piercings hefted a one-handed axe while the other formed the seals for a jutsu Sakura didn't recognise. Both of them were focused on Kakashi, who was still busy fighting Kurosawa and the others. Sakura sped up, punching anyone that tried to catch her with deadly force. She had no time for mercy; Kakashi had too many enemies to dodge two different attacks, especially when it was still unclear what the ninjutsu user was about to do.

The axe flew across the clearing; if it hit, Kakashi was a goner. The ground rippled underfoot but Sakura couldn't stop even if she wanted to. She caught a glimpse of Kakashi's face, illuminated by white chakra. Then she was past him, planting her feet and knocking the axe out of the air with a glowing fist.

She twisted with the momentum, but her feet refused to move with the rest of her. They were sunk into the ground as if it had suddenly become wet concrete. Something popped and crunched, and Sakura had just enough time to register pain in her right foot before something hit her chest so hard that she was sure it had cut her in two. A second axe, hiding in the shadow of the first. To think she would fall for such an elementary trick…it would have been laughable if it didn't hurt so much.

She fell back, unable to brace herself while her feet were still stuck in the ground. Her breath was gone completely. Somewhere overheard a thousand birds were shrieking, and she prayed Kakashi would end the fight soon. She could barely move, let alone defend herself.

The enemy wasn't swooping in to slit her throat while she was down, so perhaps Kakashi had finished the mission after all. Things did seem to be getting quieter. Was that a good thing?

* * *

Kakashi fell to his knees at Sakura's side. "What can I do?"

As predicted, the others had scattered the moment he had put his hand through Kurosawa's chest. If they hadn't, if he had been forced to keep fighting whilst simultaneously protecting Sakura from further harm...he couldn't think about it right now.

Sakura's face was surprisingly calm. Her hands were folded over her chest, already glowing green with her healing chakra. Still, it looked grim. Kakashi had seen (and inflicted) many lethal wounds before, but he never got used to seeing them on Sakura. Blood bubbled at the corners of her lips and for a minute all she could do was open and close her mouth like a fish.

"...boot."

"What?" He leaned closer.

"Boot," she repeated, her voice barely above a whisper. "Ankle...broken. Swelling. I can't-" she winced. "Not...enough chakra. Have to focus...chest."

Kakashi nodded. "Okay. Okay, one second, just hold on." He moved to stand, and a hand closed over his.

Sakura's eyes were dull with pain and shock, but they stayed focused on Kakashi's. "I'm gon'...be okay."

He looked away before she could see his expression. "I know you are."

Shuffling closer to her legs, he could see that Sakura's right foot was bent at an odd angle. As she had said, it was already swelling. The edges of her boots were leaving white marks on her reddened skin, and while a broken ankle was hardly fatal, it would certainly be easier to remove the boot now than it would to cut it off later.

"Okay, bear with me for a bit," Kakashi told her, before sliding the boot off as carefully as he could. And there was her soul mark, a diamond made up of nine smaller diamonds. His own family crest, clear as ink even against the swollen skin.

Sakura hissed, her eyes scrunched shut.

"I know, I know, I'm sorry," he murmured, tossing the boot to one side.

Sakura didn't respond, and he glanced up to find her watching him with an unexpectedly bashful expression. "You saw."

"I saw," he said, unprepared for this conversation. Sakura was so pale and bloody that she barely looked alive. His heart was caught between unbearable joy at the confirmation that his feelings for Sakura were sanctioned by the universe, and terrible fear that she would suddenly stop breathing.

"I don't…" Sakura sighed, seemingly unable to find the words to continue.

A years-old fear raised its head from the depths of Kakashi's heart. Soulmates didn't always get together, even if they did find one another. Sakura might have been disgusted by the revelation that her one great love was her broken old captain, a man who could offer her nothing but disappointment. It would explain why she hadn't said anything before now. It would explain why, every time they seemed to get closer, she pulled away from him. Of course she doesn't want him. Of course.

"I don't," Sakura began again, and Kakashi grit his teeth against the blow. "I don't know who it is." And she covered her face in her hands.

"...What?" Kakashi cocked his head to the side, certain he had misheard her.

"I don't know who it is!" Sakura wailed, before clutching her injured ribs with a wince. "I don't know anyone with a bunch of diamonds for a symbol, and frankly I'm sick of waiting for him to turn up. I wish I'd never even performed the jutsu," she finished, and she looked so miserable that Kakashi _almost _felt bad for laughing at her.

"It's not funny!" Sakura had tears in her eyes that hadn't been there even when her ribs had cracked. "It means I can never get close to anyone who isn't _The _One. Even if I want to." She turned her face away from him.

Placing a hand on her chin, Kakashi gently turned her face back toward him. Even after losing so much blood his touch managed to bring a flush to her cheeks. He smiled sweetly.

"I know who it is."

"You do?"

"Mhm. It's an old clan, and there aren't many members left, so it's pretty easy to deduce which one it's referring to."

Sakura's eyes widened. "What are they like?"

"Well…" Kakashi pretended to ponder the question. "He's a little older than you are."

"How much older?"

"About my age."

"That's fine then," Sakura replied instantly, her blush deepening. Kakashi fought the urge to give the game away then and there.

"And they're a good shinobi, but would probably make a pretty bad boyfriend. They have a lot of bad habits."

"Worse than yours?"

Kakashi returned her wry smile. "Well, no. But they're still pretty lazy, and stingy, and people say they read too many romance novels." He paused to think. "Oh, and if you don't like dogs you'll probably end up leaving him before long."

"I like dogs."

"Well that's good then."

Sakura's chest wound was closed over by now, leaving nothing but pinkish raw skin and a ruined shirt. She sat up, and Kakashi reached out to help her automatically. She leaned into his touch, supporting herself against his side.

"I don't suppose you could introduce me to him, could you? If he's willing to meet me, that is," she said, and Kakashi laughed.

"I'm sure he'd love nothing more."

"Oh, I don't know about that. I've got a lot of bad habits too, you know. I'm short-tempered and competitive, and if I get too focused on work I might lose track of time and forget a date or something." She looked up at him, her expression growing serious. "He might not want to get involved with me once he gets to know me better."

"Not possible." Kakashi shook his head. "I'm sure he'll find it's all-too easy to love you. It'll creep up on him slowly but then one day he'll realise he's started taking the long way home because it means your paths are more likely to cross. And when they don't, he'll feel far more disappointed about it than he knows he has any right to." His calloused hands wrapped around Sakura's. "You'll drive him crazy, but you'll also make him happier than anything else in the world."

She raised his hand to her lips and gently kissed his fingers. "You drive me crazy too."

He laughed, his heart fuller than it had been in years. If he could go back and talk to that sixteen year old boy, drowning in grief and desperate for someone he could belong to, he would have assured him that things were not as hopeless as they seemed. After all, whatever is lost in the winter returns in the spring; though not always in the same form.


End file.
